Gators move closer to the elusive complete game against South Carolina.
By FRANZ BEARD
Perhaps this was one of those wishful thinking out loud kind of moments for O’Cyrus Torrence, the 6-5, 335-pound mountain of a right guard who revels in beating up on whoever lines up across from him. He has been doing that on a regular basis all season which is why he is the highest graded run blocker in the entire country. He was the big bully on a Florida (6-4, 3-4 SEC) offensive line that left South Carolina punch drunk Saturday night at The Swamp. The Gators ran 79 plays in their 38-6 win over the Gamecocks, 54 of them were runs that netted 374 yards.
“I know tomorrow Coach [Napier] ain’t gonna be yelling at us too much on film because we ran for 300,” Torrence said while surrounded by reporters in the South End Zone meeting room. “Not too much he could probably yell at us about.”
Napier may not complain too much about the way Gators ran the football – “It’s what we’re good at and I think you have to play to the strengths of your team,” he said – but you can be certain he will get on some folks about the discrepancy between the first and second halves. In the first half, the Gators ran for 281 yards on 27 attempts, a rather healthy 10.4 yards per attempt. The Gators ran the same amount of plays on the ground in the second half, but the net was only 93 yards, 3.44 per attempt.
Montrell Johnson Jr. finished the game with a 161 yards (6.7 per carry) and a TD. Trevor Etienne, who blew through a hole on the right side and then managed to outrun everyone to the end zone for an 85-yard TD in the second quarter, had 100 yards on eight carries. Anthony Richardson had a 3-yard touchdown run and finished the game with 96 yards on 15 carries.
The offensive line certainly did its part, but Napier was quick to point out that running the ball for big yardage involves each player carrying out his assignment consistently well.
“When you rush the ball effectively, in particular our way of doing it, every position group is contributing to that,” Napier said. “I mean, receivers are blocking their tails off out there. Line of scrimmage, the edges by the tight ends, the read game by the quarterback and all the perimeter screen and perimeter RPO stuff. There’s not a run out there that Ant’s not deciding should I throw it here, show I throw it there, I gotta read this guy.”
Richardson, who had two touchdown passes and made it four straight games without a fumble or interception, was only 11-23 throwing the ball for 112 yards. He threw behind open receivers on a few occasions and let fly with a fast ball when a touch throw would have done nicely on two or three others. He could have thrown it better, but the way the Gators were running the ball, he really didn’t have to be the second coming of Drew Brees.
Florida’s first half offensive production racked up 362 yards, 281 on the ground, 81 through the air as UF rolled to a 24-6 lead. The Gators scored three touchdowns and a field goal on their first four possessions. They may have added another score on their fifth and final possession but they ran out of clock at the end of the half with the ball on the South Carolina 29 after an 18-yard scramble by Richardson.
The second half Gators were sloppy at times, inefficient at others. Florida managed only 153 second half yards and two touchdowns. Despite three defensive takeaways on South Carolina’s first three possessions of the second half, the Gators converted that into one touchdown. The Gators left points on the field. Fortunately, they scored all the points they needed in the first 30 minutes. In the final 1:14 of the game, the Gators committed their first turnover in four games.
“Yeah, I thought our operation on offense was a little sloppy at times, maybe things you guys don’t see, but when we make mistakes, it had nothing to do with the other team,” Napier said.
Translation: There will be things to yell about when the whole team watches the film together because if we eliminate the unforced errors we can do so much better.
Defensively, this was the best the Gators have played in a game from start to finish all season. This was just the second time the Gators have held an opponent under 300 yards (Kentucky had 272 in game two). South Carolina averaged 4.7 yards per play. Coming into the game the Gators were allowing 6.09. For the first time in 10 games, the defense didn’t allow an offensive touchdown. Dating back to last week’s impressive second quarter against Texas A&M, the Gators have six consecutive shutout quarters on defense.
Building on the momentum of last week’s well-played second half against Texas A&M, the Gators were dominant. It all began by getting the job done at the line of scrimmage. From the first three series, it was evident the Gamecocks were going to struggle running the ball. They managed only 44 rushing yards on 23 attempts. Without a running game, South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler was under heavy duress. He was sacked twice in the first half and got an intentional grounding call in the second. Rattler completed 18-26 passes and three plays accounted for 60 of his 146 yards, so on the other 23 attempts Rattler averaged 3.7 per attempt.
South Carolina’s first three possessions of the second half resulted in fumbles, the best stretch of forcing turnovers the Gators have had all season. Rashad Torrence forced and recovered a fumble with a hit on wide receiver Antwane Wells on South Carolina’s first play of the second half. On their next possession, Jaheim Bell tried to run up the gut on second and 10 at the 20 only to meet up with Desmond Watson. Watson emerged out of the pack with the football and rumbled eight yards, using a stiff arm to shove away a tackler. The entire Florida bench erupted on the sideline and got a warning from the officials.
“Kind of shocked when I saw him switching the ball [to his left hand] and then stiff arming people,” Richardson said. Torrence added, “Oh man, it was the best part of the game for me. I wish he would have scored. We would have gotten three flags thrown, more than just one on the field!”
The Watson turnover was the only one of the three the Gators converted into points, a 4-yard touchdown pass from Richardson to Jonathan Odom, the first TD of Odom’s career on only his second catch.
The third turnover was the result of a Kamari Wilson hit on wide receiver Jalen Brooks, who coughed the ball up. Trey Dean III made his Senior Day memorable by plucking the ball out of the air and running it back eight yards.
Forcing turnovers, stuffing the run and limiting the Gamecocks to only three runs of 10 or more yards and three pass plays of 15 or more were sure signs the Florida defense is growing up. Now, there will be things to clean up in the week ahead. There were some missed tackles and Napier won’t be happy about a third-and-17 that was converted in the first quarter, but this was the best effort of the season. Adding the second half of the game with the Aggies to this one and the UF defense has allowed only 343 yards and zero points in the last six quarters.
That brings us to special teams. Let’s just say they were an adventure because there were errors in kicking, punting and return games. The biggest blunder of all was late in the first half with the Gators leading 24-0. On a fourth-and-six at the Florida 48, the Gamecocks sent in their punting unit. The Gators were caught flat-footed when Kai Kroeger took the snap, looked left and then came back to the right side where he lofted a perfect pass to an uncovered Dakereon Joyner who split two Florida defenders and then ran behind a convoy of blockers for the Gamecocks’ only touchdown of the day.
Adam Mihalek made a 28-yard field goal in the first half to put the Gators up 24-0, but he had a 36-yarder blocked in the third quarter after Torrence forced the first Gamecock turnover. After the fumble recovery by Dean, the combination of an off-target snap and a fumbled hold by Jeremy Crawshaw resulted in a 10-yard loss. That is six points left on the field right there.
At the end of the third quarter, the Gators gave up a 37-yard punt return that was compounded by a face mask penalty that tacked on another 15 yards to give the Gamecocks a first down at the UF 19. The defense bailed special teams out on that one when they forced a turnover on downs at the 17 when Princely Umanmielen pressured Rattler into a bad throw.
Xzavier Henderson fumbled while running back a South Carolina punt late in the first quarter. Miguel Mitchell was there to prevent a disaster, catching the ball in midair. It was a 9-yard loss back to the 15 but the Gators maintained possession. One play later, Etienne took off on his 85-yard touchdown jaunt that more than made up for Henderson’s mistake. From that point on, Ricky Pearsall returned the punts.
Crawshaw somewhat redeemed himself in the fourth quarter when he did a rugby-style punt that bounced its way down to the South Carolina four before it was downed.
“We made a handful of errors tonight I think we can clean up,” Napier said. “Kicking game, in particular, I thought was a little sloppy.”
This was not the complete game that Napier has been talking about, but it was the closest the Gators have come to one all season. For the first half, the Gators were as dominant offensively as they’ve been all year. For four full quarters the defense got the job done. Special teams, while not good, didn’t haunt the Gators with their mistakes.
Think of this as another step in the right direction.
“I think we’re getting better,” Napier said. “I think we’re always a work in progress. This is something that can go away. It can disappear and you can forget why it’s happening. That’s the key, that we learn these lessons, that we continue to apply the same approach. Sometimes your ego can get the best of you, right, and you can lose sight of okay, hey, why is it actually working? We have to keep our humility, we have to keep our edge, but I do think we’re making progress.”
Yes, the Gators are making progress. After the loss to Georgia, a lot of people rolled their eyes when Napier said he thought the Gators had turned a corner, but the last two games have proven that out. When Georgia finished off the Gators, 42-20, a lot of experts questioned if the Gators could win even one of their last four games.
Florida is 2-0 in the month of November and bowl eligible. Road trips to Vanderbilt and Florida State remain on the schedule but the Gators should be favored to win both games, particularly if what we saw Saturday against South Carolina was a sign of things to come and not some sort of aberration.
If you look back on the schedule, it’s easy to see that if UF had avoided turnovers they would have won the Kentucky game. If the defense had played with the same kind of effort and focus that we’ve seen in the last six quarters, both the Tennessee and LSU games, both could have been won. The Gators may be 6-4 right now, 3-4 in SEC play, but they could easily be 9-1. The one – the loss to Georgia – might have been competitive to the bitter end if the Gators had played the first half like they did the second.
The takeaway from this game is that the Gators are making progress, perhaps not as fast as the fan base wants and certainly not as rapidly as Napier desires, but they’re getting there. Instead of having to win their last two games like they did in the final days of the Mullen era last year, the Gators are already bowl eligible and highly capable of finishing strong.
“Ever since that Georgia game we were talking about being 5-0 (four regular season wins and a win in a bowl game), week by week, just trying to be 1-0 that week,” Richardson said. We’re just working, just trying to get better, just trying to improve day by day, game by game. We’re just trying to go 1-0 every game.”
Two weeks into November, that plan is working out. Quite well, in fact.
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